THE show must go on - which was precisely the attitude of a number of artists when they heard that the Manchester Art Show at G-Mex had been cancelled.

Scheduled for late October, the city's fifth annual art show was suddenly cancelled in late September, leaving the artists stranded and angry. But instead of sitting around crying on to their canvases, they banded together and decided to do something incredible: organise their own replacement art show in just four weeks.

"The show was previously run by an organisation called Engaging Arts," explains Simon Wrigley, the main man behind the renaissance. "Then they handed over the baton to another company, Emo, based in Birmingham.

"Emo basically decided they didn't have enough time to organise the show and contacted the exhibitors to tell them it wasn't going to take place."

Simon, who declares he isn't artistic at all (although he is married to artist Helen Parsley), immediately set about planning the near-impossible.

Luckily, he had plenty of previous experience in organising exhibitions and in just over a week he arranged sculpture, painting and photography from over 30 top UK artists to be displayed over the weekend at the newly christened Art Manchester - The Event.

Snowball

"It was amazing to see the way that everybody pulled together," he says. "I can't take any credit because it was like a snowball. "Publicity was the biggest question, but we contacted the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Academy, The Lowry, North West Arts and Manchester City Council. People have sent out thousands of flyers on our behalf and just generally put the word out."

Robin Eckardt, a 25-year-old graduate of Bath Spa University, had planned to travel up to exhibit her bold cityscapes for the first time. After the show was cancelled, Simon contacted her to inform her of the new plans.

"Simon has been an absolute godsend," she says. "When the other show was cancelled we all thought it would leave our year a little empty."

In fact, Art Manchester - The Event looks set to be such a success that Simon is hoping to organise it again next year, despite the Manchester Art Show being back up and running too.

"I think Manchester is big enough as a city to put on both without a problem," he says. "Look at Sheffield, which has three major art shows each year."

Art Manchester - The Event will be in the Buckingham Suite of the Palace Hotel, Oxford Street on Saturday (noon-7pm), Sunday (10am-7pm) and Monday (10am-4pm), October 28-30. Click here for more information. Tweet